Much medical attention has recently been focused on tick-borne diseases occurring in human and animal hosts of parasites such as ticks (hereinafter ticks) due to organisms transmitted to the host by the tick. Such diseases are known to include Lyme disease, Ehrlichiosis, relapsing fever, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Colorado Tick Fever, tick paralysis, tularemia and ricksettial diseases. Diseases transmitted to animals by ticks include Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, equine and St. Louis encephalitis, Q fever, and spirochetosis. Various of the above-listed illnesses may have devastating consequences if not promptly diagnosed or prevented.
Ticks, in particular, are an example of parasites which have an elongated mouth projecting from a head portion attached to their bodies. Upon attachment of a tick to a host, whether animal or human, typically there exists a window of opportunity of several hours before infectious agents are transmitted from the tick into the host. Accordingly, prompt and complete removal of a tick during this window of opportunity greatly reduces risk of infection of the host.
To be effective, such removal must not squeeze or crush the body of the tick, or otherwise irritate the tick, in order to avoid the possibility of regurgitation or injection by the tick of its infectious agents into the host. Moreover, any mouth parts of the tick which may have been imbedded in the host's skin should also be removed, along with any adhesive cement secreted by the tick, in order further to minimize the possibility of infection.
It has been noted that some sufferers of tick-borne diseases contracted the illnesses because of improper removal of the tick, rather than by the tick bite itself. Accordingly, there is a need in the prior art to provide method and apparatus for effective removal of ticks and other parasites without crushing, twisting or squeezing the parasite body, and without severing (or otherwise damaging) portions of the parasite's body.
Numerous prior art devices have been advanced for tick removal. Some such devices apply heat or chemicals to the attached tick. However, application of heat, irritating or poisonous chemicals may irritate the tick and cause the tick to inject its viral or bacterial infectants into the host.
Other tick removal devices often apply a squeezing motion which, if applied to the body of the tick, may result in the undesirable consequences hereinabove mentioned. Thus, commonly utilized tweezers, forceps and tweezers- or forceps-like devices carry the risk of stimulating the tick to infect the host while removing portions of the tick's body from the host. Similarly, rotation of the tick to dislodge the tick from the host is likely to sever the tick's body from its head which itself would remain buried in the host and act as a source of infectious agents for the host.
Accordingly, the prior art has not provided a device capable of safe and complete removal of a tick from its host.